Press

For interviews, quotes, or speaking, the fastest way to reach me is email: m(AT-NOSPAM)mahmoudimus(DOT)com. A selection of coverage, interviews, essays, and talks below.

Recognition

• Forbes 2021 Next Billion-Dollar Startups — Forbes, Amy Feldman (Oct 2021) — VGS named to the annual list · archived
• Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2021 — 2021 Builders + Innovators Summit (Oct 2021) · archived
• VGS wins the SINET 16 Innovator Award — SINET (2018) · archived

VGS — funding & milestones

• Very Good Security makes data "unhackable" with $8.5M from Andreessen Horowitz — TechCrunch (Aug 2018) — Series A · archived
• Visa makes a strategic investment in Very Good Security — Help Net Security (Jan 2020) · archived
• Very Good Security raises $35M in Series B in a "zero data" push — TechCrunch (Oct 2019) — led by Goldman Sachs · archived
• Some very good news: VGS raises $60M Series C — VGS (Dec 2020) — led by Vertex Ventures US · archived

VGS — product & partnerships

• VGS teams up with Plaid to improve data security for the digital finance sector — Crowdfund Insider (May 2022) · archived
• VGS extends Payment Optimization with Network Tokens — Help Net Security (Mar 2022) · archived

Interviews & profiles

• Safeguarding the World's Data — Wharton FinTech (Jul 2021) · archived
• Faces of Entrepreneurship: Mahmoud Abdelkader, CEO of VGS — Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center (Feb 2019) · archived
• On raising over $100M to make your data unhackable — DealMakers / Alejandro Cremades (Mar 2021) · archived
• Data security's secret sauce? "Zero Data" — PYMNTS (May 2021) · archived
• VGS: security and branding — Finding Signals (May 2023) · archived
• Cybersecurity leadership: "2020 has been the perfect storm" — BankInfoSecurity (Nov 2020) · archived

Essays & bylines

• The new standard for IoT security — IoT Agenda / TechTarget (Mar 2019) — byline · archived

Podcasts & talks

• Safeguarding the World's Data — Wharton FinTech Podcast (Jul 2021)
• Exploring the cutting edge of privacy and encryption — The Stack Overflow Podcast (Jul 2021)
• The VGS origin story — Code Story (Oct 2021)
• CEO & co-founder of Very Good Security — Secure Talk (Jun 2021)
• Mahmoud Abdelkader of Very Good Security — Bank On It (May 2020)
• Take 10: Jon Dwoskin talks with Mahmoud Abdelkader — The Jon Dwoskin Experience (2022)
• Fintech Fridays: transforming web security — Village Global (Sep 2018)
• Data security in payments — PayPod / Payments Industry Podcast (Aug 2020)
• Protecting sensitive information — Infosec Cyber Work
• How Very Good Security makes data unhackable — Tech Talks Daily (Apr 2019) · archived
• A new paradigm for data security — EM360 (Aug 2020) · archived
• Inside the Vault: The Payments Security Podcast — VGS
• Nail your product-market fit and build an impactful company — talk, IT Arena, Lviv (2019) · archived
• Your "Yellow Brick Road" to building a trusted fintech — VGS webinar · archived

Earlier career

• Y Combinator-backed Balanced raises $1.4M for marketplace payments — TechCrunch (Nov 2012) · archived
• Balanced strikes a transition deal with Stripe — TechCrunch (Mar 2015) · archived
• eBay acquires Milo.com for $75M — TechCrunch (Dec 2010) · archived

Press kit

• Name: Mahmoud Abdelkader (online: mahmoudimus)
• Title: Entrepreneur & software engineer. Co-founder of VGS (CEO 2016–2023); previously co-founder/CTO of Balanced Payments (→ Stripe, 2015).
• Short bio: Mahmoud Abdelkader is an entrepreneur and software engineer focused on fintech, payments, reverse engineering, and data security. He co-founded VGS and Balanced Payments, and is an active angel investor.
• Headshot & logos: available on request.

Need something specific — a longer bio, a headshot, or a logo? Email me and I'll send it over.